High-definition films with more than six times the detail as existing DVDs? That's the promise of the next generation of hi-def discs, both the HD-DVD format and rival Blu-ray. But the picture isn't all rosy, so to speak. These new discs will have a new copy-protection scheme called AACS. For consumers, the prospect of buying new hi-def devices and movies is already messy, given the competition between the two formats, but the limits emposed by the extra copy-protection may put people off completely.
What are some of the measures the Hollywood studios are implementing? If you use standard analog wires (like the common three pronged yellow-red-white cables), the player will automatically worsen the picture quality. The thinking is that anyone copying such a video will not get a perfect duplicate. Or how about this: If you hook up your next-gen player to a computer, you won't be able to record the film as a movie file. To play hi-def movies directly on a computer, users will need the draconian new software that will ensure you are not ripping the film onto your hard drive or another disk.
When did something I buy stop being mine to do with as I please? Why can't I get a screen capture when I want? Or watch the movie in the way I want, like on an iPod screen? And why is it that an upgrade in technology now means a downgrade in functionality?
Related Stories: | Topics:Technology, technology + computers, Hollywood, Apple iPod |
Email
Digg
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Buzz Up!
LinkedIn
Recent Comments | 6 Total
February 16, 2006 at 9:09pm by Shane Sturgeon
If you use the red-yellow-white cables, you're not going to get HD anyway. That is commonly know as composite cabling, and does not support HD, from any device. What you probably were referring to are the red-green-blue cabling. That does support HD signal bandwidth and is commonly know as component cabling. This analog-type connection will be downgraded to 540p in players that are equiped to obey the AACS flag.
- Shane Sturgeon
HDTV Magazine
February 17, 2006 at 12:40pm by Stephen M. James
It happened when the awful Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 was passed. That's when.
February 17, 2006 at 4:03pm by JB
It seems to me a good old fashioned revolt is necessary. After all, how difficult would it be for consumers to completely stop buying something they don't really *need*? This would make an unmistakable point to the studios that they need us, not the other way around.
Then again, it's gonna be ten years at least before HDTV has enough market penetration to make a critical mass of consumers want to buy the discs.
February 18, 2006 at 2:33pm by Tony
But this misses the real question....Just how many of Hollywoods movies are worth the expense to see in HD?
February 18, 2006 at 6:29pm by Guy Jaconelli
The HD signal will most likely be provided to the monitor via an HDMI connnection and not via analogue component conections or HD SDI.
It should be apparent to those who live in countries that recognize and protect intellectual property that the copyright protection is there not so much as to prevent limited copying for personnel use but to thwart unrestricted copying that would be visually indistinguishable from the original disc.
February 19, 2006 at 8:41am by faz
DRM are more than "copyright protection". They very cleverly bypass the copyright laws (fair use in the US and private copying in Europe) and even international trade laws (region coding is against free trade).
They are legally enforced by special laws like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or the european equivalent, lobbyed by the content companies. And sometimes partly written by the companies, as we have seen in France in december 2004.
These special laws allow the content companies to transform what is nothing more than trade practices in private laws. Even if their trade practices are in opposition with the "old" copyright laws.
Uncompatibilty, monopole, illegal restrictions on the consumer : they instantly become protected by the law if they comes from a content company !
It's like if a peanut butter company would only allow one type of compatible spoon to enter their pot via a special form, and the use other spoon would be prohibited by the law as "pirate".